The 'F' word Daniel Farke will have drummed into Leeds United ahead of Plymouth Argyle clash — YEP 6/2/24

Leeds United face a long journey south and a busy schedule but boss Daniel Farke is ensuring his players minds are on just one thing

By Chris Holt

The carrot of a trip to reacquaint themselves with Premier League opposition in Aston Villa or Chelsea awaits in the next round of the FA Cup; a Yorkshire derby against the Championships bottom side Rotherham is coming up and then there are another two sizable journeys in the space of a few days... it would be understandable for Leeds United to be looking ahead.

However, Daniel Farke used a particular 'F' word on a number of occasions yesterday as he spoke to the media ahead of the Whites' replay date with Plymouth Argyle at Home Park as he set about ensuring that his team embrace the 'one game at a time' cliche, with so much to play for this season.

That word was focused... focused on the game at hand, focus on the fact that Leeds are still in the FA Cup when Plymouth could well have nicked it at Elland Road and focused on a team who, despite their position near the bottom end of the Championship, clearly have a threat, not least at home.

"Well I would have preferred to be a bit more effective in the first game because then we wouldn’t have to travel that long but anyway it is definitely better to have this game instead of being out of the competition because we want to go into the next round and want to come as far as possible," said Farke. "But before we speak about next possible opponent it is important that we are really fully focused on this game because [they are] a good side with many many goal threats also in their team.

"Even in the first game they showed that could be effective, they had I think two chances and were able to score one a bit out of nothing so it is a good side and especially an away game long travel, we have to be fully focused in order to give us a chance to go in the next round but that’s definitely what we want to do.

"First of all, whenever we represent this shirt, we have to be at our best but like I mentioned before, I am a deep believer in cup competitions and sometimes some big nights but before you have to make sure that in this type of games you are really on it and focused. We won’t do anything stupid tomorrow in terms of team selection, we won’t risk anyone who perhaps there with problems but we want to play a strong side and we want to go through to the next round."

Leeds will almost certainly be without Jamie Shackleton, who has fallen ill in the lead up to the fourth round replay, which came after a 1-1 draw at Elland Road. Farke confirmed yesterday that Pascal Struijk [groin] and Daniel James [groin] will also be missing from the trip to Devon.